Tranquil covers

Tranquil scenes of the North Sea on a summer's day. Temperature 23 degress, no wind and a calm, calm sea.

Dh presented me with a link to a site displaying cover pics of Mills and Boon and how they have changed over the years. Check it out here

The modern covers are not the ones I won't be seen dead buying over the counter - and not under it either! You know the ones I mean. The ones with impossibly handsome men, so handsome that the sensible mind shrieks oh yeah, pull the other one. The ones where the men look as if they need a bra to hold in their rounded pectoral muscles and their abdomens seem painted on. The ones where the female displays wanton limbs with only a scrap of limp muslin preserving her decency...

But even in the examples shown, we have a preponderance of couples lolling around on a bed.

Why do the media people want to give the impression that the stories are all about couples bedding each other?

The ones I have read (OK, yes, I have read some of them - ebooks do provide anonymity! - must be why erotica does so well there - No, really, I choose carefully so that the covers will not make me blush to admit reading them) Well, the ones I have read always have more story than the cover would have you believe. Carefully thought out, well motivated plots about why couples don't make it to bliss at the drop of a hat. But does the cover tell you that? It does not. It tells you Read About Sex Here.

When is the advertising/media world going to get over its preoccupation with sex?

Penrith, expected

I wish I had better photos of the speakers at the conference. I'm still getting used to my tiny new camera which requires a very steady hand compared to the bigger, heavier types I'm used to.

Anita Burgh, right, gave a very thorough talk on how to woo agents and publishers purely through the way you approach them with your submission.

Unhappily my pictures of the M&B girls Jenny Hutton and Meg Lewis did not come out well even though they were both so young and attractive. They told us they want diversity and variety, that too many people were sending in submissions using the same old basic plots. They advised "listening" to our characters and discovering new twists on conventions and conflicts.

Internal conflict should be the main focus of the story. It took me a long time to understand what M&B meant by IC; now I understand it to be the opposing forces within each character, whereas

misunderstandings, for example, are external conflict. An internal conflict might be fear of rejection opposed to a need for security, for example. The emotional repercussions of a traumatic past are what the reader wants - not descriptions of the traumatic past itself.

Make your stories work on a character driven basis. Start with the character, chart their journey, mark their growth and change, stay with the character rather than the plot.

Characters and countryside

I love the recent change in the countryside. Fields are starting to look as they did in my childhood instead of the barren, weed and flower free zones they have been for so many years. The characters in my wip must have enjoyed flower meadows and hawthorn blossom just as I do. Buttercups are rampant at the moment.

The fact that my characters "live" not far from me, geographically speaking, means that I can easily visualise the places where I have them walking and riding, and I love that. I know a lot of research can be done via the research tools we have available today, but nothing, in my view, beats actually walking the ground you want your characters to tread. And some authors simply do not make use of Google Earth or the wonderful maps we have of this country, and I wish they did.

My current characters are suffering at the moment, and will be for some time to come - but I know I can bring them to a happy conclusion, so I am not weeping copious tears. It is a change of pace I am attempting - not adding more, but going deeper. Though yes, I suppose I am am adding more, for now I have shed the M&B contraints, I can look at subsiduary characters and bring them into play. I started out five years ago with multiple characters, and shed them all to concentrate on the H/h for M&B - now I'm back to where I started!

I am enjoying it. I think. Yes, I know I am. No more excited gasps or electric touches every time the hero walks into the room; now I can try and find out what my characters really think and feel about each other.

It may be something to do with the covers and titles of M&B Historicals these days but I am very reluctant to pick one off the shelves. If the covers continue to scream "erotica" and the titles follow the trend towards the Billionaire's Problem Bride/Her Noble Love kind of simplicity then I won't be buyng any more, which is a pity for there are some authors I enjoy - Cornick, Allen, Maitland - among the "pseudo" historicals ie, those with modern manners. dialogue and plot lines plonked down in Regency times. Yes, I know some people enjoy that sort of story, but they're not for me.

Hexham Book Festival

Had a day out today at the Hexham Book Festival. Evidently I missed a great workshop on synopses yesterday, but today I learned a lot by listening to M&B author Sharon Kendrick in the morning and a trio of authors plus a senior editor in the afternoon.

Some of the stuff can be found on the website, but here are a few words of wisdom that stuck in my mind -

"Remember not to overplay the arrogance. Weave in layers of conflict. As one question is answered, a second is revealed. Signposts are necessary sometimes. Beware coincidences, especially trite ones. (I don't suppose anyone will own up to that one!) 'She stopped at the gate and wondered if Tino would remember her' was deemed an excellent opening hook. You need to know their characters inside out and their backstory so you can set up and be clear about the internal conflict."

And at last I think I know what internal conflict really is.

The afternoon session authors were Natasha Oakley, Michelle Styles and Sharon Kendrick.
They were informative and enthusiastic, and all agreed that M&B romances are character driven and that constant change keeps the books relevant to the next generation. Good motivation makes a book work, poor motivation can ruin excellent writing.

For M&B you need tunnel vision on the central romance. If something doesn't affect the romance, take it out. It's got no business being there. In case you wondered, the other woman scenario is deemed to be 'external conflict' because she is outside the central romance. But a woman who has been raped and has ongoing problems with any future relationship is internal conflict. So is a grasping, greedy step-mother who makes the hero suspect that

every woman is a gold digger.
Psychological conflict should mount in stages to the resolution, but takes a nose-dive at the Black Moment when all seems lost.

M&B are looking for new authors. They get around 1,500 submissions a year and they take on 1% of them. But all 3 ladies talking to us today came through via the dreaded slush pile. What will catch the eye? Great characterisation, good voice and Something Different.

Keep writing!

Frogspawn, Oz, Marks & Spencer, M&B

You'll all be happy to know the taddies are swimming free now but I'll wait until tomorrow for a photograph as the sun is not shining and it wouldn't be a good pic. I was going to give you another picture, but blogger seems to be unwilling to participate in the exercise right now, so all things seem to point to tomorrow.

We've had a busy few days with family visiting from Oz and I have to confess I am retail-therapied out! My daughter-in-law is as bright and breezy as ever after a day and a half's shopping whereas I am wilting badly, but I'm happy knowing that d-i-l got what she wanted and still loves Marks & Spencer. Oz is one place where M&S have yet to take over, and there seems to be no equivalent - so if any M&S managers are reading this - hey guys - you'd have quite a following in Sydney!

I sent off a partial for HD to M&B on the 16th, and received acknowledgment today. They're always very good at swift acknowledgements, but they still have my Viking story...and the months are clocking up. Jan 07 for the partial, August sent in the full ms, and still waiting. Perhaps I'd better enquire again.

India and M & B

Mills and Boon - which has nearly three-quarters of the romantic market in its home country of the UK - is now launching in India. Their books are already popular in the country because they have been unofficially introduced from abroad.

However much critics and reviewers slate and revile Mills & Boon, the company happily goes on selling. Personally I think the critics do M&B a favour - all publicity is good publicity! A woman will read what she wants to read, not what the critics tell her. Women like the happy endings. It is reassuring in these days of violence to know that however difficult the route may be, true love always prevails in the end.

Modern Indian women say they want the M&B heroes to be modern Indian men - they're not looking for Maharajahs. A combination of Bollywood actors Hrithik Roshan and Shahrukh Khan, businessman Anil Ambani and industrialist Sunil Mittal would do nicely!

If you want to read the article, click here